Pulsed power checkout and initial testing of the rits-6 accelerator

Abstract

Summary form only given. Upgrades to the Radiographic Integrated Test Stand (RITS-6) have been completed. Changes from the RITS-3 architecture include tripling the Marx bank capacitance and doubling the number of intermediate storage capacitors, pulse forming lines (PFL), and inductive voltage adder (FVA) cavities. The accelerator is capable of greater than 10 MV output voltage at 125 kA into an electron beam diode producing a radiation pulse width of about 60 ns. During commissioning of the RITS-6 accelerator, experimental tests were used to characterize the Marx capacitor bank, laser triggered gas switches, and water switches. A self break curve and laser triggered operating points were established by firing the Marx into the intermediate storage capacitors with resistive loads connected to the output of the gas switches. Full machine tests with a large area blade electron-beam diode were used to analyze the performance of the PFLs, IVA cavities, and the magnetically insulated transmission line (MITL). The gas switch jitter, water switch jitter, and load prepulse will be discussed. A circuit model of RITS-6 was developed from existing models of RITS-3 using the BERTHA transmission line code. Results of the pulsed power check out tests are compared to the circuit model